UNITED COLORS OF KERALA

THE YEAR WAS 1990.1 READ FROM A US-PUBLISHED MALAYALAM newspaper that there was going to be a convention of US Malay-alis in Orlando, Florida. This was to be the 4th convention of FOKANA (Federation of Kerala Associations in North America). A cross-section of the Indian diaspora hailing from Kerala would gather for a few days and enjoy themselves. It was virtually a short holiday. I decided to attend, along with my family.

This was way before all social media when the major means of communication was via phone calls. At that time, AT&T was the major phone company. They charged a fixed monthly amount and each call was charged based on its duration. There were different rates. Weekday business hours were the highest. Then there were

the lower rates, for evenings and weekends. There was no concept of unlimited calls. We called up and registered for the convention. Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar was the chief guest, while senior comrade KR Gouri Amma was the main speaker. There were entertainment programs lined up involving Malayalam movie stars. It was a memorable occasion for first-generation immigrants from Kerala like me who had crossed over in the 1970s and 1980s.

Though many of us had already become successful in our profes-sions and businesses and adopted US as our home, we still found any connection with Kerala to be quite exhilarating. Our cultural roots remained connected with Kerala and so found this convention to be an occasion to reconnect. After attending the 1990 convention, I made it a point not to miss the subsequent conventions held every two years. As all FOKANA conventions till then were held on the East Coast, at the 1998 convention in Rochester, New York, many delegates led by me started pushing to have a convention held on the West Coast. We got our wish.

At the New York convention, we elected Kalathil Pappachen as the president. I was elected as the western area vice president. As per the rules of FOKANA, as the next convention was to be held on the West Coast, I became the convention convener. Pappachen was living in the San Francisco/ San Jose area and found a convention center and hotel in San Jose.

My company Aero Controls became the official sponsor of the convention. Most of the conventions till then had either incurred losses or had barely managed to break even. The San Francisco convention made history by closing with a profit of $75,000.00. It turned out to be the most successful FOKANA convention to date, a benchmark for future conventions to follow.
Instead of passing the money to next committee, FOKANA decided to start a charity organization called FOKANA Charityand they elected me as the first chairman of FOKANA Charity. It was a landmark decision as we were able to help many needy persons both in the US and back home, in India.

The 2002 convention was held in Chicago and the 2004 meet in New Jersey, before returning to Orlando, Florida in 2006. In Orlando, two major candidates were running for the presidency of FOKANA - Sasidharan Nair from Houston and Thampy Chacko from Philadelphia. Both wanted to take the 2008 to their respective cities.

It was a very tight contest between two strong factions. The first part of the election is to decide where to conduct the convention. The outcome would also indicate as to who the next president would be. The cities in contention were Houston and Philadelphia.
Houston won. Based on protocol, the person who represented the city would poll the same number of votes and become president, as the votes for the city were expected to translate into votes for the president.

Since Houston was the winner, many assumed that Sasidharan also won as president. So many did not bother to vote for him as they got busy voting for other office-bearers. When the votes were counted election commissioners realized the mistake. So they decided not to count the ballot to elect the next president.

This infuriated the Thampy Chacko faction and they insisted that the votes had to be counted. By that time already another day had passed. One election Commissioner was partial to Sasidharan Nair, while the other two supported Thampy Chacko. Yet, there was no announcement made about who the president of FOKANA would be for the next two years.
Traditionally, the names of the elected candidates were announced and new office bearers during the dinner banquet on the last day. That didn't happen. I was upset as were many others. We felt one side hijacked the next convention, even though they had lost.

I felt I needed to get involved. On that convention floor, I announced that I was going to run as president of FOKANA for the years 2008-2010. I had the full blessings and support from Kusumam, knowing well it would be a two-year commitment that would steal my time with both family and business.

Sasidharan and his team tried to claim the legitimacy of the election by seeking legal intervention. This lasted almost 18 months before the court ruled against him as two out of three election commissioners had declared the election to be improper.
Following this verdict, Sasidharan and his group decided to break away from FOKANA. They formed another organization called FOMAA (Federation of Malayali Associations of Americas) and planned a maiden convention.
A majority of Malayali associations that were originally with FOKANA and believed that Sasidharan and team had won the 2006 election, decided to support FOMAA.

Out of nearly 60 Kerala Associations in America, 46 decided to move into FOMAA. Consequently, its first convention was held in Houston. During that meeting, I was elected as the second president, and along with me all my team members. The decision was unanimous. There were no other candidates in the fray.

The formation of FOMAA, following a vertical split of FOKANA, had its repercussions back home. I came under pressure from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to mend the fence with FOKANA. Not only he, but many other prominent political leaders followed suit, probably as many of them had been hosted in the US by FOKANA ever since its inception in the early 1990s.

The politics of the FOKANA split and the FOMAA formation were of such significance that I had to rush to Kerala and hold parleys with the Chief Minster at his official residence Cliff House in Trivandrum.

For some reason, the formation of FOMAA was viewed as a move that put a cloud over the unity of Keralites settled in the US. Surely, that must have been the argument floated by the FOKANA repre-sentatives and it found resonance within the Kerala government.
After lengthy discussions that lasted many hours, Oommen Chandy decided to ask former ambassador TP Sreenivasan to play mediator if both organizations agreed to get together for negoti-ations. However not many in the FOKANA leadership wanted or had any intention of allowing a merger.

Since FOMAA had the support of more associations, they were afraid that we could take over the organization. So they rejected all proposals that were put up as part of the effort towards recon-ciliation. Finally, after trying for many months, Sreenivasan gave up. He said no mediation was possible if one group did not want to see the merger.

Now we had no choice but to move forward as FOMAA. For me, it was a big challenge but there was no way I was going to back out. I had gone through the rigor of seeing partnerships fail. Then I had gone on to start my own company from its foundation and built it into an entity that had an important standing in the aviation industry.

I wished to take a page out of that book by making FOMAA the most successful Malayali umbrella organization in the US. The displeasure and criticism of politicians back home was a cross I had to bear with fortitude. This became evident as many of them were rude and refused to meet with me or any other FOMAA members in the months that followed.
Around that time, Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs from Kerala Vayalar Ravi scheduled a visit to New York, the first such visit by a Kerala politician after FOMAA came into being.

A bunch of us representing the senior office-bearers of FOMAA called on the minister in New York to meet and greet him and make a presentation about our organization. To our shock and dismay, Vayalar Ravi not only refused to shake hands with any of us but started giving us a dressing down, blaming us for the breakup of the FOKANA.

I decided then and there that I would make him come around. and make sure we earned his respect and goodwill. Over the ensuing months, I kept in touch with him and capped it off by extending my invitation to attend the FOMAA annual convention in Las Vegas the following year.

I was pleasantly surprised when he accepted my invitation and agreed to attend the final day's events, marked by a banquet and a music concert by the legend, KJ Yesudas. I recall that evening, we had nearly 1,500 people attending the banquet, all of them dressed formally, the men in suits and women in saris. The minister entered the hall as the banquet started and joined me on the dais.

I knew FOMAA had found official acceptance with the powers that be back home when he asked me, "How did you manage to gather these many people?" My reply was prompt. "Now you know ours is the bigger organization. I have been telling you all these months but having seen it, you know the answer." He nodded his head in affirmation, thereby signaling his approval.
When we met for breakfast the next morning, the minister continued to express his appreciation for how well organized the function was. When he said he still could not believe how big the turnout had been last night, I felt vindicated about my decision to break away from FOKANA and lead FOMAA.

That was the impetus I needed. For the next two years, I worked closely with nearly 50 Malayali associations across USA and Can-ada. During this period, I travelled almost every weekend, visiting most of the organizations thereby keeping them engaged under the FOMAA umbrella.

I vividly remember the Onam Festival day in New York in September 2009. I started off attending one association's celebra-tion at 10 a.m. As soon as it was over the office-bearers from the neighboring locality insisted that I should attend their event as well.
That was not the end, as three other organizations insisted on my attendance. By the time the celebrations finally got over, the time was 2.00 the next morning. It was by far the most engaging Onam day of my life.

The year 2009 held special significance for Aero Controls as we were celebrating our 25th anniversary. I decided to give back to society as a mark of gratitude for the success that had marked our journey over a quarter century. In a bid to keep the FOMAA flag flying, we planned to build 25 houses in Kerala for the homeless.

As is normal once such plans are announced, I was flooded with recommendations on behalf of those who needed houses in Kerala. By the time we were ready to hand over the keys, the number of houses had increased from 25 to 36.

During the key handing over function Chief Minister Oommen Chandy asked me if I could build two more houses. We did that later. By the time I stepped down as president, I had made sure that the legacy of FOMAA was well and truly established.

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